Brock and Tecumseh reunited on 1812 commemorative stamps

Stamp of Shawnee chief Tecumseh to be issued June 15, 2012.

Photograph by: Handout
, Canada Post

Nearly two centuries after they died as allies thwarting an American invasion of Canada, the country's pre-eminent War of 1812 battlefield heroes — British general Sir Isaac Brock and aboriginal chief Tecumseh — have been reunited in a set of commemorative stamps to be issued next month by Canada Post.

The stamps are the first in a series of souvenir issues to be unveiled by the postal agency over the next three years to mark the bicentennial of the 1812-1814 war. The Brock and Tecumseh stamps go on sale at post offices across the country on June 15, three days before the 200th anniversary of the U.S. declaration of war against Britain and its North American colonies.

Featured in profile portraits illustrated by Canadian artist Suzanne Duranceau, Brock and Tecumseh are shown posed, respectively, in front of a pioneer European settlement and aboriginal encampment.

"The setting is a visual representation of the motivation for each man — this is what they were fighting for," designer Susan Scott said in a statement provided to Postmedia News.

"The War of 1812 was a defining moment for the provinces that would later confederate into the Dominion of Canada," Canada Post stated. "While many significant battles raged along the U.S. border in Quebec and Ontario — and many leaders arose," Brock and Tecumseh were "two of the most important."

The Royal Canadian Mint already has begun selling commemorative coins marking the war's bicentennial.

In January, the mint released its 2012 silver dollar featuring images of an Iroquois warrior, a British sergeant and a French-Canadian soldier united in defence of the country. A map showing part of the Great Lakes and Southern Ontario — the Upper Canada epicentre of the war — appears in the background.

The design, produced by B.C. military artist Ardell Bourgeois, also appears on another coin that features 200 tiny beads of gold around the outer edge, signifying the two centuries since the war began.

The mint's other War of 1812 commemorative, a pure-gold coin designed Cathy Bursey-Sabourin of the Canadian Heraldic Authority, shows a bald eagle symbolizing the United States and a lion representing Britain positioned on either side of Maple Leaf-emblazoned shield, the principal Canadian emblem.

Brock led the defence of Canada after war broke out with U.S., directing allied British, Canadian and First Nations troops to key victories in the opening months of the three-year conflict before dying heroically at the Battle of Queenston Heights, near Niagara Falls, Ont., on Oct. 13, 1812.

Felled by an American sharpshooter while leading an attack against invading U.S. troops, Brock is remembered as a valiant commander whose exploits in the war not only helped preserve the future Canada as a collection of British colonies, but also helped cement the sense of national identity that led to Confederation in 1867.

The stamp's likeness of Brock is based on the only known adult portrait of the mythic general created from life — a pastel image completed in Quebec just before the War of 1812.

That portrait was shipped to Canada last month from an art gallery in Guernsey — the British island in the English Channel — for display at a Niagara Falls-area museum during this year's bicentennial commemorations.

Tecumseh played a crucial role in leading native warriors into battle — fighting alongside British-Canadian forces — against the American invasion of southern Ontario.

The Shawnee chief, accorded the status of a British general as he led up to 500 native troops, was killed about a year after his ally Brock — during the Battle of the Thames in October 1813 — near present-day Chatham, Ont.

His dream of a continent-wide Indian Confederacy died with him, but Tecumseh's role in rallying aboriginal nations against the U.S. made him a pivotal player in the War of 1812 and one of Canadian history's leading folk heroes.

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